"This highly novel book provides an exploration of the role of silence in the school setting and interrogates the value of silence and quiet in contemporary educational practices, looking at pedagogies and classroom practice to guide this increasingly popular subdiscipline of the history of education. Arguably the first contribution written in English on the educational value of silence within the history of education more broadly, this book interrogates the way we encounter and label sounds and noises within the classroom, and the ways in which these have come to dictate relationships between teachers and pupils in our contemporary society. Chapters investigate sociocultural reasons for a Western problematisation of silence and shyness of children, and the wider impact on class participation and treatment. Issues around children's sense of identity and teachers' authority are explored in relation to silence as a powerful tool for a progressive understanding of learning. Ultimately, the book will guide thinking around educational, acoustic surroundings and provide alternative vocabulary to talk about educational soundscapes and the real-term impact on our learning environments. Providing a novel and nuanced framework for studying schools as acoustic or sound spaces, the book will be of interest to researchers, scholars, and academics in the fields of history of education, curriculum studies, and the theories of learning more broadly"-- Provided by publisher.
This highly novel book provides an exploration of the role of silence in the school setting and interrogates the value of silence and quiet in contemporary educational practices, looking at pedagogies and classroom practice to guide this increasingly popular subdiscipline of the history of education.
This highly novel book provides an exploration of the role of silence in the school setting and interrogates the value of silence and quiet in contemporary educational practices, looking at pedagogies and classroom practice to guide this increasingly popular subdiscipline of the history of education.
Arguably the first contribution written in English on the educational value of silence within the history of education more broadly, this book interrogates the way in which we encounter and label sounds and noises within the classroom, and the ways in which these have come to dictate relationships between teachers and pupils in our contemporary society. The chapters investigate sociocultural reasons for a Western problematization of silence and shyness of children, and the wider impact on class participation and treatment. The issues around children’s sense of identity and teachers’ authority are explored in relation to silence as a powerful tool for a progressive understanding of learning. Ultimately, the book will guide thinking around educational, acoustic surroundings and provide alternative vocabulary to talk about educational soundscapes and the real-term impact on our learning environments.
Providing a novel and nuanced framework for studying schools as acoustic or sound spaces, the book will be of interest to researchers, scholars, and academics in the fields of history of education, curriculum studies, and the theories of learning more broadly.
Translated by Emmeline Burdett on the basis of the original Dutch edition, Leuven University Press, 2022
Arvustused
"In this book, Pieter Verstraete provides a long-needed history of silence in classrooms. Does silence facilitate learning or enforce discipline? Does it support the shy student or suppress the extravert? Is a noisy classroom a joyous expression of educational engagement or an impenetrable barrier to order and thought? The books answer to these questions is: yes. It turns out that silence provides a clear window into the multiple and conflicting aims that educators have sought to accomplish in classrooms over the years."
- David F. Labaree, retired Professor of Education, Stanford University, USA
"This book throws a new light on silence in schools, a theme that has been a concern of educators for several centuries but that has been scarcely conceptualized. It brings to the fore some figures and practices such as shy children and silent reading that are worth interrogating, and succeeds in connecting present educational and historiographical debates in meaningful ways. Moreover, this book provides a methodology for studying schools as acoustic or sound spaces in ways that will be useful for researchers and teachers as well."
- Professor Ines Dussel, full-time researcher, Department of Educational Research, CINVESTAV, Mexico
"Silence, as Pieter Verstraete writes, is ubiquitous in the history of education. It may be everywhere, but to understand its complex educational history it is necessary to listen to silence and this is what Verstraetes book offers the reader. A listening journey where we encounter silent practices across time, enter silent spaces, hear the voices of pedagogues and above all track the childs experiences of silence and education. In sum, the book is both an excellent addition to the ever-growing corpus of sensory history and at the same time addresses pedagogical gaps in the history of education."
- Professor Ian Grosvenor, Emeritus Professor of Urban Education History, University of Birmigham, UK
"Pieter Verstraetes new book on the fascinating history of silence in the history of education poses uniquely consequential questions for the past as well as for the here and now. Surveying the meanings attached to silence in educational spaces, beginning with 17th century efforts to evoke classroom silence as a measure of discipline and control to the 20th century pathologization of the silent, shy, child, Verstraete enhances significantly our understanding of silence as an educational phenomenon. Uncovering the many educational goals attached to silence over the centuries, Quiet Classrooms, Educational Soundscapes, and the Power of Silence: Towards an Acoustic History of Education, enables us to see both the connections with, and breaks from, our current concerns for the next generation of ear-budded learners. A must read for historians of education, children, youth, and beyond."
- Professor Mona Gleason, Professor in the Department of Educational Studies, University of British Columbia, Canada "Pieter Verstraete's book is a captivating and inspiring work. In an elegantly structured analysis, Verstraete unravels the cultural and pedagogical formations of silence in schools and education, weaving together the history of pedagogical thinkers and classroom practices. Verstraete's writings also discreetly awaken and sharpen your senses to the pervasive acoustics of schooling. Through careful reproduction of source material, together with detailed empirical descriptions of, for example, the iron and wooden school bell, the sound of falling school chairs, and the ways in which children were allowed - and restricted - to move about the classroom, Verstraete brings the shifting sounds and silences of the school day to life and makes them tangible to the reader's ear."
- Lisa Rosén Rasmussen is Associate Professor, Department of Education Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark
"In this book, Pieter Verstraete provides a long-needed history of silence in classrooms. Does silence facilitate learning or enforce discipline? Does it support the shy student or suppress the extravert? Is a noisy classroom a joyous expression of educational engagement or an impenetrable barrier to order and thought? The books answer to these questions is: yes. It turns out that silence provides a clear window into the multiple and conflicting aims that educators have sought to accomplish in classrooms over the years."
- David F. Labaree, retired Professor of Education, Stanford University, USA
"This book throws a new light on silence in schools, a theme that has been a concern of educators for several centuries but that has been scarcely conceptualized. It brings to the fore some figures and practices such as shy children and silent reading that are worth interrogating, and succeeds in connecting present educational and historiographical debates in meaningful ways. Moreover, this book provides a methodology for studying schools as acoustic or sound spaces in ways that will be useful for researchers and teachers as well."
- Professor Ines Dussel, full-time researcher, Department of Educational Research, CINVESTAV, Mexico
"Silence, as Pieter Verstraete writes, is ubiquitous in the history of education. It may be everywhere, but to understand its complex educational history it is necessary to listen to silence and this is what Verstraetes book offers the reader. A listening journey where we encounter silent practices across time, enter silent spaces, hear the voices of pedagogues and above all track the childs experiences of silence and education. In sum, the book is both an excellent addition to the ever-growing corpus of sensory history and at the same time addresses pedagogical gaps in the history of education."
- Professor Ian Grosvenor, Emeritus Professor of Urban Education History, University of Birmigham, UK
"Pieter Verstraetes new book on the fascinating history of silence in the history of education poses uniquely consequential questions for the past as well as for the here and now. Surveying the meanings attached to silence in educational spaces, beginning with 17th century efforts to evoke classroom silence as a measure of discipline and control to the 20th century pathologization of the silent, shy, child, Verstraete enhances significantly our understanding of silence as an educational phenomenon. Uncovering the many educational goals attached to silence over the centuries, Quiet Classrooms, Educational Soundscapes, and the Power of Silence: Towards an Acoustic History of Education, enables us to see both the connections with, and breaks from, our current concerns for the next generation of ear-budded learners. A must read for historians of education, children, youth, and beyond."
- Professor Mona Gleason, Professor in the Department of Educational Studies, University of British Columbia, Canada
Introduction: Listening to silence in the history of education
1. Silent practices in education
2. Research into silence in current pedagogical practices
3. A critical look at existing histories of silence
4. Towards a history of silence at school and in the classroom
5. The silent self, exemplary Bobby, and history as megaphone
Chapter 1: The rise of classroom-based silence
1. He squeals just like a thin pig, whose throat must be cut at once
2. Noise and silence in the work of Jean-Baptiste de la Salle
3. Servile silence and philanthropic freedom
4. Regarding proper, exact, good, mechanical, sweet, or healing silence
5. A lesson in silence for the youngest children
Chapter 2: Maria Montessoris rediscovery of silence
1. The first cry of the newborn child
2. Silence, discipline, and the din of falling chairs
3. Silence exercises, whispering voices, and controlled liveliness
4. The meaning of silence for (the education of) teachers
5. If we want to reach silence, we have to educate them
6. Reaching a new world through silence
Chapter 3: The silent child and the loud self
1. Silence and shyness
2. Dictation, exam questions, and observation lessons: the omnipresence of shy children in the classroom
3. The voice of the eighteenth-century Timidus: Im not mad!
4. From good and evil to normal and abnormal shyness
5. Social Darwinism and the noisy struggle for existence
6. The successful self, the culture of personality, and the war against shyness
7. Maria Montessori, self-education and shyness as monstrosity
Chapter 4: Silent reading and the child as open book
1. The art of reading aloud
2. Silent efficiency and the economisation of education
3. The rise of silent reading in the Low Countries
4. Silent reading tests and the call for responsible selection
5. Critical noises and the triumph of silent reading
Epilogue: Silence, the chargeable self and the direction of our future
Pieter Verstraete is Senior Professor in the History of Education, Research Centre for Education, Culture and Society, KU Leuven, Belgium.
